Sunday, April 27, 2008

'Egg mushrooms' for kids and adults alike

And what a lovely birthday I had. On Thursday (the actual b-day), K. and I had a yet another fantastic meal at Stenhus in Tallinn. On Friday I had some 20 friends (incl. few kids) for a birthday party at our home, and today our families came for Sunday lunch. Friday's party was Spanish-themed, today I served a number of typical Estonian party snacks, and I'll tell you more about them in due course. But I wanted to share this happy and bright photo with you.

I suspect you all know about this particular party piece consisting of boiled eggs and halved scooped tomatoes? Yes? No? It's in a classic Estonian children's cookbook published in mid-1980s, so most 'kids' of my age are familiar with this.

But I knew it would be even better in mini format, so I tried this version. Instead of regular chicken eggs and medium-sized tomatoes, I chose quail eggs and cherry vine tomatoes. My nephews - and the rest of the family - loved popping them into their mouth, so I'll be making the mini version from now on.

Boil some quail eggs (say 10) for 2 minutes, cool and peel them.Halve 5 ripe cherry tomatoes, scoop out the seeds and let them drain on a kitchen paper for a few minutes.Cut some fresh dill or parsley and scatter on a serving plate.Now cut a very thin slice off the bottom of the quail eggs, and stand them on top of the finely chopped herbs.Place half of a tomato on top of each quail egg.Sprinkle with Maldon salt flakes or dot with mayonnaise for that Amanita muscaria* effect :)

* Amanita muscaria aka fly agaric mushrooms are of course poisonous and inedible, but they are some of the the prettiest mushrooms in the forests with their bright red caps and white flecked tops. Kids here learn early on to avoid these when forageing for wild mushrooms.

24 comments:

I'm eager to see your typical Estonian party snacks ! This first picture is actually really nice, and as I'm a french reader, I didn't know the idea. It's the first time that I leave a comment, so I can also say that I really like you blog ! I've seen also lots of appetizing pictures on your flickr, but unfortunately I'm not good enough in estonian to understand and make your recipes which are in estonian !

Those are ADORABLE! But people must learn that the Amanita muscaria are a delectable eating mushroom when properly prepared by boiling first, then sauteeing, or baking to bring forth that yummy mushroom flavor. Boiling removes the psychotropic elements which are not *poison*, but are intoxicating.

When i was little, my mom got me an estonian cookbook for kids and I made those mushrooms!! Happy belated birthday (mine was a few days after yours and i turned 30!) -- and many many happy birthdays. Those mushrooms look so pretty and bring back such good memories. I also remember being cautioned not to come anywhere near the real thing -- as they're pretty deadly.

This egg mushrooms looks so beautiful with the colors, I'm sure it'll be a big hit with the kids! Nice colors! Although I'm to a big fan of egg mushrooms, this sure looks yummy! I'm normally the one that will say no to egg mushrooms.